'Not afraid of death': Co-pilot's chilling admission after trying to crash flydubai jet

Co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, accused of attempting to crash the flydubai jet headed to Tel Aviv, confessed to investigators that he desired to intentionally bring the plane down and harbored no fear of death, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The 29-year-old Omani national is now being investigated for his radicalization and the reasons he was permitted back into the cockpit despite having extremist interests previously flagged by authorities.

Hammami's journey from a love of flying to radicalization began at Oman Air, where he was initially banned from flying after authorities discovered his visits to extremist websites. He later underwent a deradicalization program and was reassigned to a desk job before eventually finding employment with Flydubai in February 2026. It remains undetermined if the airline was aware of his past or if Oman was ever consulted regarding his background.

Authorities are also scrutinizing Hammami's time in Syria, where he grew up as the son of an Omani father and Syrian mother. He reportedly may have begun radicalizing while in Syria, during the country's civil war involving Islamist rebels fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad. Hammami's social media history, accessible through the Internet Archive, provides insight into his extremist views, including misogynistic and conservative sentiments.

His online activity, with over 3,000 screenshots from his deleted X account, includes statements opposing women working and wearing the veil, as well as creating a fake account to contact Saudi women. While these posts don't definitively prove he became violent or if his views directly led to the flydubai attack, investigators are examining them in conjunction with his earlier extremist web activity and time in Syria to determine if they are part of a broader process of radicalization.